So many little friends, and an update

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Yesterday, I was able to connect with the scrap guy, and he was scheduled to come over this morning to see what there was to see. After opening the gate for him, I stayed out to give the garden a watering, while keeping an eye out to make sure our vandal didn’t suddenly show up. Given his recent threat of “retribution” in a phone message to my brother, we just never know what he’s going to do next.

As I was watering the winter squash interplanted with now-dry corn, I spotted a tiny green friend on a leaf.

I paused to take a photo, then continued watering – and spotted another one.

And another.

And another!

There were so many tree frogs, just chilling on the dried corn leaves!

There was one larger frog, sitting with its eyes closed. Most of the others were no bigger than my thumbnail! I was absolutely enchanted by the one that was just sort of peeking at me over the bend of the leaf it was on.

I so love our tree frogs! Especially when they’re in the garden.

Eat those slugs, my little friends! Feast away!

I had just finished watering and was putting the hose away when I heard the scrap guy driving in. Perfect timing!

The first thing to look at was right nearby – the years of aluminum cans that we’ve been collecting since moving out here. Then we went to look at the old threshing machine and the three cars. There is other metal around those cars that they can take, too, plus a stack of salvaged steel doors that have been sitting outside for so long, they are no longer useable. I almost forgot to show him the old truck (or half a truck) that’s almost completely buried in burdock and weeds. He took photos as we went around, and asked about the old vehicles and farm equipment beyond the outer yard that we could see. I need to get clearance from my brother on those, because I think he has plans for some of them. There are also the old appliances and even the old bikes my daughter and I took down from the hayloft in the barn, and other things laying about that I was able to say yes to having removed.

I took him through the barn – the old cow stall where the collection of batteries we found while cleaning up is partially blocked with my brother’s stuff – to the former hay yard. I need to clear it with my brother, but we should be able to get almost all those old vehicles, and the old, broken snowmobiles, removed. Having them there is dangerous for the renter’s cows. They will actually try and eat things like the vinyl seat covers on the snowmobiles.

In fact, we had a hard time getting into the old hay yard because of them. We haven’t had any reason to go through that door in the barn until today, so I was expecting it to be blocked by overgrown nettle and weeds, but something else was blocking the door. Thankfully, I was able to open it wide enough to reach and move it, though not without difficulty.

It was a radiator.

Small, but rather heavy for its size.

I remember seeing it leaning against the barn along with some other junk. How the cows managed to drag it in front of the door, I have no idea!

After our walkabout, he was honest with me. For just the threshing machine and 3 cars, plus the appliances, it isn’t worth it for them to come out. When they go to a site, they bring along an excavator and other heavy equipment, plus a scale to weigh on site, to be able to load things. If, however, we were able to include the vehicles in the old hay year, that would make it worth the trip for them. If we could add some of the other old vehicles and farm machinery beyond the outer yard, even better.

So I will have to talk to my brother about that.

We will also need to go through some of the vehicles to take things out, as some of them seem to have been used for storage. One of them looks like it has at least one heavy duty tarp in it. Until we take it out, there’s no way of knowing if it’s still useable, or if it’s been there so long, it’s become brittle.

As for the aluminum and batteries, I asked him if it would be better for us to just load it into the truck and take it in ourselves. He said yes.

So that is something we will need to plan on. We might have difficulty fitting it all into the box of the truck. If we remove our bags of hard sided grocery bags from the back of the cab, we should be able to fit the dozen + batteries in there.

That should give us a few bucks, at least. The aluminum would be by weight. I have no idea what the batteries would give us. There are some very different sizes and shapes in there, too!

He’s going to email me with some information later, and I’ll ask them what their procedure is for drop offs.

After that was done, I was talking to my younger daughter, and she asked what plans I had for the day. She was wondering if we could make a trip to the city. She has been saving up for a really good pair of boots – she’s after something all season and high quality, to last her for many years. There is a specific outlet in the city she wanted to go to.

The location of this store is near the Costco we normally go to, so I was familiar with the route. My older daughter transferred some funds so that we could also pick a few things up at a nearby Superstore. So shortly after the scrap guy had come and gone, my daughter and I were on the road to the city.

We drive right into the predicted storm.

I love the tires on our truck! It’s been almost a full year since we got it and, while the monthly payments make things tight, it’s worth every penny!

We stopped at my mother’s town to pick up gas and breakfast (at lunch time), then continued on our way. My daughters were messaging each other to keep us up to date, and we learned that the rain we’d left behind as we got closer to the city, did reach our place with a lovely downpour. I was so happy to hear that!

Once we reached the outlet my daughter wanted to go to, I dropped her off then went to the nearby Superstore. I had barely started shopping when I got a message from my younger daughter.

It was a bust. They recommended a different store on a street I’m not familiar with.

I quickly finished my shopping – we didn’t need much – then went to pick her up. We considered trying this other store, but my daughter was pretty upset – I still don’t know what went wrong, but I’m sure she’ll be able to tell me later – plus we had refrigerator items among the groceries, so we went home, instead. Courtesy of my older daughter, we took a different route to go to the town nearest us, first, and pick up some Dairy Queen using coupons we got in the mail recently. That was a lovely treat from her!

Once we were at home, I looked up the store on the street they recommended. It turns out that, while it’s on another part of the city, it’s in the north side, and pretty easy for us to get to.

It also turns out they have another location, under a different store name, that was just a couple of blocks up from the store I’d dropped my daughter off at! The only difference it that the recommended location includes “casual” shoes by this outlet, which is not what my daughter is after, so that doesn’t matter.

*sigh*

We really need to get this done before winter, so I will happily make an extra trip for it.

I know my daughter feels bad about dragging me out for a “wasted” trip, but it did allow me to pick up some stuff that’s not available locally, so it’s not wasted at all. I just wish she could have found what she was looking for!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: morning harvest, and peppers finally ripening!

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It was a lovely, cool and foggy morning today. Apparently, we did have some rain last night, but barely enough to wet the grass. Other areas of the province got flooding!

Though we had thunderstorms on the forecast, the amount of predicted rain was pretty low, and these systems often blow right past us. With that in mind, I decided to water the garden, though not as deeply as I would have if there was no rain at all in the forecast.

I also wanted to stay out longer, as I’d opened the gate for the scrap guy – more on that in another post. Before the watering, though, I managed to get a picture of one of our first yellow peppers turning colour. I can’t remember if this is an Early Sunsation or Early summer

If you click through to the next image, you’ll see this morning’s harvest – including some accidental harvests. I found a bell pepper branch that had broken off under the weight of its peppers. As I was tending to the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, I tried to lift a heavily laden branch to some support, only to have it fall off in my hands. The same thing happened later, when moving some of the Black Cherry tomatoes for better support. I’ve made fresh cuts on the broken ends, which were partially dried from having broken much earlier, then wrapped them in damp paper towel. They’re now hanging in the living room/cat free zone to continue ripening.

Also, it’s time to make another batch of tomato sauce!

The Re-Farmer

Morning cuties

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Look what I found this morning, hanging out in the mulch.

When harvesting the potatoes in this bed, I remove the mulch and just piled it up close to the tomato I found among the potatoes and transplanted. The kittens absolutely love dried grass clippings as a bed!

The white one with the black on its head is the one that liked to snuggle with eye baby when he was at his worst. We can pet him, most times when he’s in the sun room or close to the house. Not so much, when he’s further away. The fuzzy tabby has sometimes let me touch him (her?) while he’s eating, but that’s about it.

We’re working on it!

Just before I started this post, I heard from the Cat Lady. Button had been treated for ear mites and had his ears flushed several times before he was allowed out of isolation and with the other household cats.

It turns out, the ear mites were so deep in the ear canal, they didn’t get them all.

She just had to treat all 23 household cats for ear mites, at $100 a cat.

*gasp*

Also, it turns out The Wolfman is allergic to probably chicken. He is now on a hypoallergenic food. This is the cat that would constantly steal the chicken, turkey or salmon roasted for them, as it was left to cool.

Which is just so weird. The outside cats eat what we can afford to give them, plus whatever they hunt for themselves. We haven’t see anything that might be an allergic reaction to the food. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a cat – or human, for that matter – allergic to chicken, but apparently it’s one of the more common allergies. The Wolfman did come inside when he was very small, and only because I found him with a dislocated shoulder. It popped back into place on its own, and we never sent him back outside. So he would have been eating at least canned chicken and turkey, since we do give the inside cats wet cat food. We’re not seeing any sort of allergic reaction with the inside cats, either. I mean yeah, the cats sometimes scratch their ears, but that’s been ear mites, which we’ve treated them for. They’re not displaying the other symptoms I’m reading.

The Cat Lady calls the Wolfman, Greedy Guts, because he eats so much and steals food so often. He’s gained 6 pounds since they took him in (he still refuses to allow anyone who comes to see him for adoption, anywhere near him). One of his most striking features was his fluffy flag of a tail. He has since been loosing fur on his tail, which turned out to be an allergy symptom. He looks so strange with a scrawny tail!

So very strange!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: September garden tour!

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Finally!

I recorded these clips on the 10th, but didn’t get a chance to actually do anything with them until today.

Without further ado, here is our September garden tour video.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Re-Farmer

Our very own jungle, and the catio is almost there!

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While doing my rounds this morning, I just had to get some photos of our Crespo squash. Here’s one of them…

What an absolute jungle!

Some of those leaves growing up from vines on the ground are taller than my waist! The vines climbing the cherry trees are really taking off, and blooming.

If you click over to the next picture, you will see my little green friend that I found in the main garden area. The onion flower stalk it’s sitting on is bigger than the frog!

Later on, I went back out to finish painting the catio.

Well, almost.

I thought a quart would be enough. I was wrong, but by so very little!

If you click through to the second photo, you’ll see that I finished painting the mesh in blue. I didn’t try to get into the spaces to cover the white on the frame. I just wanted to make sure the rusted mesh was protected. When more black paint is in the budget again, we’ll give the while thing a second coat. Except for the top, of course, since that would require taking the roof panels off.

Once everything is dry, we can replace the cat hammock and then it’s basically done. Getting more paint is not a necessity, since all the important bits are now protected with at least one coat of paint.

The cats will be happy to be allowed back in there!

Including this little one.

I find this kitten, curled up like this and napping, all over the place! Usually someone in a sun spot, in the open, on the grass. Today, he decided the kibble house roof would be his curl up spot.

I was actually able to pet him while he slept. Usually, when I try that, he wakes up and runs off. Today, when three adult cats pushed their way through, demanding pets and waking him up, he didn’t run away! I even got to touch his back a bit before the other cats pushed themselves under my hand. I stopped trying, because I didn’t want the bigger cats to end up pushing the little one right off the roof.

I tried to do a head count after feeding the cats this morning. I think I counted 41 this morning. I may have counted a cat twice, but I don’t think so.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

Today, we’re looking at a relatively bearable high of 23C/73F. As I write this, we’re at 21C/70F, with a humidex of 25C/77F. We got a little bit of rain last night, so I have decided not to water the garden today. I’ll definitely have to, tomorrow, though. The system that blew through barely touched us, but other areas in our province got enough that people in my local gardening groups had their gardens completely flooded out.

This morning I finally made some follow up calls. I left a message with the company that will be repairing our septic expeller. I got through to the scrap guy and told him about the threshing machine and cars that we have permission to get cleaned up. He will be coming over tomorrow morning to look at things and see what they’re dealing with. They were also supposed to take the collection of old batteries we found while cleaning up in the basement and garage. Those will be harder to get at, now that my brother is storing things in the barn, but we should still be able to do that. It will be good to finally get those bags of aluminum hauled off. We’re looking at almost 7 years of cans collected. With all the cat food cans in there, the outside cats keep digging into on corner and making a mess.

At least it’s just in the one spot, though!

I look forward to being able to clear out more of the old vehicles, but I have to clear with my brother, which ones he says can go or not.

Little by little, it’s going to get done.

The Re-Farmer

A bit of cat isolation shelter progress

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We’ve been focusing so much on getting the catio fixed up and useable, it’s been slow going on the cat isolation shelter build.

I was actually able to get a bit of progress done on it last night.

The torn fabric from one of the catio’s floating shelves was badly frayed where it had torn loose while being transported, as were all the edges once the rest of it was torn free of the staples. The fabric, however, is very durable and there was still a decent amount of it.

So it got washed, then my daughter hemmed it and attached grommets to the corners.

Last night, I added screw hooks to attach it to the isolation shelter.

Here, you can see it set up over the main opening between top and bottom levels. It’s too short to fit all the way across, so I’ve got it secured at five points. Three, directly to hooks in the frame, one with a loop to reach a forth hook. I’d actually put loops on both grommets on that side, but added the fifth hook to the frame near one corner as well. The loops are just Mason’s twine, which should be strong enough to last a long time. If not, have other cordage we can try.

Having it there means a cat wouldn’t be able to jump straight up from the bottom, but they could still use the scratching post ramp to get to the second level. Plus, since it’s just on hooks, it is easy to remove for cleaning, or if it turns out to be in the way. If I can find suitable clear plastic to cover the front of the shelter, I can see cats quite enjoying being able to hang out on the hammock, looking outside.

Today, I got a couple more things done.

The first was a start on securing mesh onto the pallet floor on the bottom level. It would have been much easier if I’d caught on to the potential problem before the frame was attached to the pallet, but… oh, well.

I had intended to use a rather fine black plastic mesh that I have, but that would have required two rolls to cover the bottom. I had a section of mesh that was used for a garden bed cover left over, so I checked if it would fit.

It fit rather well. A bit short on the sides side, but not enough to be a safety concern, should we ever had to keep very small kittens isolated in there.

I centred it as best I could, then used streel strapping to secure it on the sides.

The front and back have a gap running from one side to the other that needs to be covered, so the mesh will be folded upwards and attached to the inside of the frame. Attaching the back is going to be harder, since I added the wire mesh to it before I realized the openings in the pallet were a potential problem.

Bending and reaching in to screw in the strapping was very painful, though. I’m going to have to ask a daughter to secure the front and back.

I think we can get away with using wood lath nailed in place for that, though.

Since I wasn’t physically able to finish that job, I got a start on another. Assembling the pre-painted boards for the main door/ramp.

This is how it will be used until we have to isolate a cat inside. It will need hinges added to the bottom, plus something attached to the frame at the top to keep it from falling inwards. It will also need a latch to secure it closed when we’ve got a cat that needs to be kept inside.

The rest of the bottom level will have wire mesh attached to the openings. This door way is large enough that we can reach inside to take a litter box in and out, or the non-insulated box nest that’s too tall to fit under the shelf on the second level.

The upper level will have two access points on the sides. I was thinking of having one near the front and the other near the back. These will allow us to reach in for the food and water bowls that will be in there, remove the hammock if we need to, or move the insulated box nest around.

Or, hopefully, reach a cat that needs to tending to. That might be a bit more difficult, it it really doesn’t want to get got!

I’d rather have sliding panels, for better control of the opening, in case a more feral cat tries to escape, but I think I’ll just have to settle on hinged doors, instead.

I brought over another leftover sheet of rigid insulation. I plan to cut pieces to fit the side openings. If I’m going to have hinged doors, anyway, they can have insulation added to the insides. The other sections will be walled off, so they can have insulation laid over the openings the same way it was done on the back, a week ago, which you can see below.

It isn’t a lot of progress today, but it’s something!

Hopefully, I’ll get some actual sleep tonight, and will be able to get more done tomorrow.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: morning harvest, and look what I found!

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I had a really slow start to the day. For some reason, I just couldn’t fall asleep last night. By around 3am, I was hungry, so I got up to eat, then went back to be. I finally fell asleep somewhere around 4 am.

I still woke with the light, 2 or 3 hours later. I asked my daughters to take care of feeding the outside cats for me, so I could try and get more sleep.

Which sort of worked.

I finally got up around 11 and was sitting down to breakfast by about noon. That’s the one bonus of having my daughters take care of feeding the cats for me in the morning. Normally, I do my rounds and morning routine before I eat, which usually means I’m famished by the time I get inside.

By the time I finally went outside to check on the garden, it was mid afternoon. We’d reached our predicted high of 24C/75F. I don’t know what the humidex was at the time, but as I write this, coming up on 7pm, we’re at 21C/70F, while the humidex puts us at 24C/75F.

I feel like that’s on the low side.

Here is what I was able to harvest while checking on the garden.

Those three melons sure take up a lot of space in my giant colandar! One of them looks like it’s a bit over ripe, but it did not want to break free from its vine.

There are actually a few San Marzano tomatoes in there, but they rolled under the melons, along with some of the Black Cherry tomatoes. Since I harvested so many Forme de Couer tomatoes yesterday, there wasn’t much that needed picking today. There was one larger G Star patty pan I decided to pick.

What I was really happy to see was that red Cheyenne pepper! I was eyeballing it yesterday, when it still had a green tip. There’s another one that’s almost ripe that I will likely be picking tomorrow. The hot Cheyenne pepper plants have a LOT of peppers on them, so we will likely have enough hot peppers to preserve and supply us for a very long time. My daughters tried having one with a meal, using an entire small ripe pepper. Small as it was, it turned out to be too much, so they know to use a much smaller quantity in the future. This one large pepper would be enough for many meals.

Everything in the garden was most definitely feeling the heat. We keep getting vague forecasts for possible rain, but I decided to go ahead and water the garden, anyhow. I’m glad I did. Looking at the weather radar, it seems the system is going to blow right past us. The weather app on my computer actually says we are getting rain right now, which we are not.

While watering, I noticed that we are finally having more bell peppers starting to blush. The purple ones get dark very quickly, and we’ve got a couple Sweet Chocolate peppers that have started to turn. Today, for the first time, I could see another colour. I couldn’t tell if the one pepper I could see will be turning orange or turning yellow, but it is definitely getting bright.

When I got to watering the west melon bed, I found a lovely little surprise among the leaves that are dying back.

It’s a Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon!

It’s absolutely tiny – about the size of a softball. I’m very happy to see it, though. After spending most of the summer assuming the big vine in the bed was the one surviving watermelon, only to finally realize it was a winter squash, I thought we wouldn’t have any watermelons at all, and that the transplant had died.

They are supposed to get quite a bit bigger, but I don’t care. By the colours of the stripes on the outside, it may even be close to ripe.

I wonder how many more surprises like this I will find, as the leaves and vines die back?

I took footage for garden tour video on the 10th – our average first frost date – but haven’t had a chance to actually make the video. Now I’m glad it got delayed, as I can include things I missed, like this watermelon, when I’m editing it.

Gosh, September is already half gone.

Where did the time go??

The Re-Farmer

Adorableness, and cat shelter progress

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I first need to share with you this bit of adorableness!

In the first photo of the slide show, you can see the fluffy lady – we haven’t named her yet – nursing three kittens. They are not hers. She is the one that dropped her very late litter all over the yard and left them, so she had no surviving kittens of her own.

If you click through to see the video clip, you can see what seems to be the same three kittens going for nip, while being thoroughly mothered!

I no longer see any of the other mothers nursing. They’ve weaned all the babies off themselves. It seems these three kittens weren’t ready to be weaned, and somehow managed to get the fluffy lady to let them have nip! I am just sort of assuming they started this soon enough after she lost her kittens to start and maintain lactation, though we didn’t see her nursing them until weeks later.

We are so close to her letting us touch her, even when she’s not at the food bowls! If we can get her at all friendly, we can get her into a carrier, to a vet and spayed. It’s very touch and go right now.

While I was outside today, watering the garden, my daughter was a sweetheart and did some sewing for me. The torn cat hammock in the catio could not be repaired to be used in there again, but the fabric itself was still in good shape. It only had frayed edges. My daughter trimmed all the frayed parts straight, then hemmed all the sides. My husband had a grommet kit among his leatherworking tools, and she added a grommet to each corner. It will now be used inside the cat isolation shelter. I plan to set up hooks to hang it from. It’s smaller than the space, but we can just add cord loops to the grommets and use that to hang it off the hooks. It can then be easily removed for cleaning in the future, as needed.

I had scrubbed the floating shelves in the catio earlier, and they were dry by the time my daughter was done. She then started painting the inside.

She started off with the paint roller to do the wire mesh and most of the bottom of the frame, first. It would be touched up with the brush, later. The floating shelves would be done last, after those staples and bits of frayed fabric got removed. Once the inside is finished, the outside can be finished. The bottom was done first, so we could flip it upright and not have to flip it upside down again. Then the top was done, so the roof could be added. That leaves just the middle of the outside that needs to be done.

My daughter had to close up the door while she was in there, because the cats kept trying to go in with her. She was still in there, having moved to the other side, when I tried to take a picture from outside the catio. The mesh’s original paint it white, though, so there was no way I could get a picture of progress inside, so I opened the door, took a quick picture, then closed the door again before going inside.

I few minutes later, I got a message from my daughter.

I had locked her in!

Out of habit, I’d closed the latch on the door. There’s no way to reach it from inside!

It’s a good thing she had her phone with her!

While I was writing this, my daughter came by to update me. The inside is now completely done, except for the inside frame of the door. Rolando Moon wouldn’t leave her alone, so should couldn’t finish painting it, without also painting a cat!

Which means all that’s left to paint is the outside of the catio, and the inside frame of the door. Once that’s done, a new cat hammock will be added to replace the torn one, and then it will be finished!

The cats already love it. That will make it so much easier for when we need to keep a cat isolated in there for short lengths of time, in the summer.

The cat isolation shelter that’s still under construction will have insulation and a heat source in the upper half, so that one will be used in the winter.

Hopefully, to keep spayed females safe and warm for their 2 week recovery period.

Oh, that reminds me. I got an update from the Cat Lady about the family that was interested in adopting Gouda as a barn cat.

I think I’m going to have to take a pass on them!!!

I appreciate that they were honest, but good grief! It turned out they went through 8 barn cats.

In ONE YEAR!

One of them was a mystery loss. They came home and found it unresponsive. They took it to the vet immediately, but they could find nothing wrong with it. They gave it the standard antibiotics, etc., and told them to take the cat home and watch it closely. It passed away two hours later, and they never found out why.

The other seven…

Engines.

Seriously. Who lived in the country, with barn cats, and doesn’t do a cat check or bang the hood? Once, I can see, but SEVEN times?????

In ONE YEAR!!

What this also means is that they don’t have any sort of warm shelter for their cats, so they’re going into the engine compartment, instead. The woman the Cat Lady spoke to says they know better now, but it shouldn’t take SEVEN cats for them to learn their lesson.

Nope. I don’t want Gouda going there. He’s never tried to go into the engine compartment on our truck. He’s not even interested in going under it and exploring the undercarriage – but he has lots of other more comfortable shelters to use, in all seasons and all weather conditions. Including the catio, which he now loves to hang out in. Who knows what he would do, if he didn’t have any of that available.

We may have way too many cats, and need to adopt out as many as we can, but we still want them to go to the best situation we can find for them. The Cat Lady follows up on the cats she’s adopted out – many of the adoptees happily share photos of them with her, regularly. The few we’ve had that went to farms are all doing very well. Some of them are now indoor cats, they adapted so well.

That’s the sort of thing I’d like Gouda – or any other yard cat that becomes someone else’s yard cat – to have.

Gouda was one of the friendlier yard cats, but not overly so. Since he’s gotten his nibs nipped, and is now out of the catio, he has taken to following me around when I’m outside, wanting pets! He’s even allowed me to pick him up and hold him, briefly. That will make him much easier to adopt out, too!

Hopefully, as we start getting the females done, they’ll become more friendly, too.

We shall see!

We are such suck for the cats.

😂😂

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a double harvest, and a day in the garden

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I was going to say “a morning in the garden” in the title, but no. It’s almost 4pm, and I just got inside!

As I write this, we are at our predicted high of 27C/81F, with the humidex putting us at 29C/84F, and I must say, I’m really feeling that 29C/84F!

We’ve had rain and even thunderstorms. It took a while, but the rain barrel by the old kitchen garden finally got refilled. We’re supposed to get more thunderstorms passing through over the next week, but the amount of rain predicted is under 5mm. That’s only 0.19inches. Barely enough to get things wet.

With the next week or so expected to reach temperatures like today, I wanted to make sure to give the garden a deep watering. In fact, I’ll probably be doing that every morning, if I am able to. The things that need the time to finish ripening also are things that need a lot of water to do so.

Before the watering, though, I wanted to see what needed to be harvested. I even remembered to bring something to carry it, instead of using the bottom of my shirt. 😄

I ended up needing a second container!

This is the first harvest.

I even spread it out on the bench, so it could all be seen. Much to the entertainment of Syndol, whose paw you can see on the left of the photo. Gouda was following me around and really wanting attention, and kept trying to bite my hands while I was laying things out, because I wasn’t petting him!

So… what we have this morning.

On the left are both Dragonfly and Purple Beauty peppers. There are a few Seychelle beans. Nothing much, but they can be added to the beans that got picked yesterday. The tomatoes are the chocolate cherry tomatoes growing against the chain link fence, and the Magda squash is from the pot in front of the house.

I was able to pick some green G Star patty pans, and they have more developing. We have a first in here, too! I picked one of the two white scallop patty pans we have growing, leaving the second one to get bigger. There are lots of flower buds, but I can’t see any other patty pans developing on those plants.

With the melons, I found the first one on the ground, its stem wound looking at me. 😄 That one had actually been growing fairly high up on the trellis, so it had fallen maybe 3 feet to get where I found it. No damage, though. Then I found two more that were ready to pick! We might almost have enough melon to start freezing some!

After gathering these, I found a small bin to use for the tomatoes in the old kitchen garden.

We have a few San Marzano tomatoes, a pretty good haul of the Black Cherry tomatoes, which look almost identical to the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. I don’t know why, but they just aren’t getting dark like the variety is supposed to. The rest are the Forme de Couer tomatoes – including a branch that broke while I was tending another vine!

Those done, I set up the soaker hose in the bed the Forme de Couer tomatoes are in, then used the rain barrel to water the old kitchen garden, the potted summer squash, and the other beds on the south side of the house.

While watering the Cholate Cherries at the chain link fence, I found a few I missed, earlier!

The mystery tomato plants I found among the potatoes by the chain link fence, plus the one in the wattle weave bed that showed up among the garlic, are both developing tomatoes now.

The lettuce with the name I never remember to spell will be going to seed soon, and I want to make sure to collect some of those.

The kohl rabi have been attached by flea beetles. This is a surprise, as I didn’t think this was the season for flea beetles! I guess the canola fields are being harvested, and the beetles are finding other things to chomp on. I still see no sign of bulbs forming on the kohl rabi stems.

I had to resist collecting more eggplants. They look so good! I want to get them more time to grow bigger, though.

The Crespo squash got extra water, and I even did the compost ring tomatoes. 😄

We will need to do something about the Crespo squash!

In the first photo above, you can see that the squash that started developing inside the A frame bean trellis is getting pretty big….

… and heavy!

If you look at the second picture in the slideshow, you can see how the bamboo stake across the top is bending quite a lot! It is there to hole the metal posts in position, and keep the netting from sagging. It’s not there to hold weight! We will need to made a large enough squash hammock to put under the squash and attach it to the metal stakes in the A frame. If we can fix the hammock to four points, that will hopefully distribute the weight enough.

By the time the south yard beds were done, a couple of hours had passed, so I headed inside for breakfast, leaving the soaker hose running in the Forme de Couer tomato bed.

When I got back outside and checked the soaker hose, it really didn’t seem to be letting out much water. In fact, I saw more condensation on the garden hose than seepage from the soaker hose! I dug down into the soil under the hose, and it was still pretty dry. So I switched the garden hose back to its regular nozzle and just watered the bed with the hose.

The inside of the catio needed to be painted so, before I went to water the main garden area, I got a bucket and a brush and scrubbed the floating catio shelves as best I could, first, so it would have time to dry.

Then it was off to the main garden.

By this time, it was 26C/79F, according to my phone, and the garden was definitely feeling the stress from both the heat and the lack of rain. According to the current forecast, we are no longer expecting thunderstorms, and the chances of getting any rain at all are below 10%, so I made sure to give them plenty of water. Basically, I have a pattern of watering slowing along one side of the bed, going around to the other side and watering it again, then repeating the process in the next bed. That way, each bed gets done twice, and any spots that get missed due to foliage or whatever gets done on the second pass.

I found a surprise in the Summer of Melons mix bed!

That’s a tomato plant!

I have no idea where it came from. The soil used to top this bed was from the pile of garden soil we bought a few years back. I don’t remember repurposing soil from a bed we’d grown tomatoes in.

Well, we’ll see how it does.

I also found new onions growing among the ones from previous years we found and transplanted, to go to seed. The seed pods on those are still quite green, so they didn’t come from there – at least not that I can tell!

As for the onions in the actual union bed, I think I’m just going to have to harvest those. The shallots, too. All but one are completely flattened, so they’re not going to get any bigger. If they stay in the ground too long, they’ll start getting mushy.

Note for future reference: must find some way to keep the cats out of the garden beds!

Which reminds me…

The last thing that got watered was the strawberry bed. It is surrounded by a net, which allowed the strawberries to recover quite nicely from being deer eaten.

Well, a deer managed to get at one corner again! It actually made a hole in the net!

They must really like the taste of strawberry plants!

I think we might have to isolate strawberries in the old kitchen garden. The deer have not gone in to eat the tiny variety of strawberries in there, and that garden would be easier to fence off from deer completely, if that were needed.

Oh, speaking of critters eating things…

While watering the winter squash interplanted with corn, I found this.

It looks like the raccoons got at the Yukon Chief corn cobs I was leaving for seed!

They didn’t get all of them, though. I won’t be pulling the corn stalks under after the squash is done for the season. Hopefully, the raccoons have decided they don’t like dry corn and will leave the rest alone! I’m actually seeing a few tiny cobs with fresh silks on them, but the tassels are all dried, so there’s no pollen for kernels to form.

So the watering is finally done for the day, and I’m taking a break. I’d like to get a bit more work done on the cat isolation shelter today, but it’s starting to get late. It might have to wait until tomorrow.

Today is Sunday, though. It’s supposed to be a day of rest from unnecessary work, anyhow!

The Re-Farmer

The catio has a roof! Plus, that vandal update

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

With my brother and his wife on the way, I made sure to have the gate open for them, then started working on things outside, so I could keep an eye on things.

I didn’t realize until late last night that, in one of my posts yesterday, I’d said I would give an update on what’s going on with our vandal, but completely forgot about it when I hit publish.

Our vandal is out of the hospital, and I’m suddenly seeing him on the trail cam files quite frequently.

Granted, he has to go past our place to check on his fields, but considering he just had major surgery, it’s rather odd that he’d be doing this so often, when he’s just back from the hospital. I’ve seen his wife doing it while he was in the hospital, so it’s not like he’s the only one that can get it done.

There’s more to it than that, though.

Other than seeing him go by on the cameras, we’ve had no contact with him, even after the restraining order expired. He knows that I am willing to do things like that, and press charges for his vandalism. He’s not used to having someone stand up to him, rather than make excuses for him, so he stays away. I’m happy with that, as I really didn’t want to apply for it again. With the horrible messages and calls to my mother he’d been making, his number was blocked on her phone. My brother also blocked his number.

Yet, somehow, he was able to leave a message on his voice mail a few days ago.

We still don’t know how.

I have a copy of the recording, but could barely make it out. Probably because I was trying to listen to it on my phone. My brother was able to transcribe it, though.

Most of it was the usual weird stuff. He has invented scenarios in his head about what he thinks we are doing, and yells about it. This time, apparently my brother has a thousand dollar bottle of wine with which to celebrate our vandal’s death that he will have to put away for now. Oh, and my brother wants to put him in jail, apparently.

As always, he’s obsessed with this farm.

The property we’re on consists of two quarter sections. The one we’re on is all rented out except for the corner the house is on, which we are responsible for (and to keep an eye on the rest, in general). The other quarter, which is a half mile up and across the road, has no buildings or even fields on it and the whole thing is rented out to the same person. He, the renter, uses it for pasture and rotates his cows from there to here, regularly, along with other pastures he’s got for them. He’s very responsible when it comes to the land, whether it’s how he takes care of our field he grows crops on, or ensuring the pastures are never over grazed.

Well, our vandal had driven past the other quarter section recently (I only know this because my mother had tried calling him – which she should not have done – and spoke to his wife). In the message to my brother, he said that there’s a particular weed taking over and was ranting on how he took care of that piece of land for years – but also that he was fighting this weed on his own property. He was conflating the two things, so it’s hard to tell exactly if he meant he picked this weed on that quarter, as well as picking it on his own property right now, or just on his own property right now.

Either way, how could he have been taking care of that property for years, when it’s been rented out to the same farm family since my parents mostly retired from farming? I mean, we’re talking two generations renting from our family at this point. Plus, with the renter having his cattle grazing there, he would be on top of any invasive weeds that would affect the quality of the pasture, if they were there. So I honestly don’t know if this weed is actually there, or if our vandal just thinks that’s what he saw as he was driving by.

It’s also none of his business.

Either way, he ranted about how it’s going to ruin the farm, and that my “porkchop” daughters should go out there with a push mower to get it under control.

Yes. He said we should be mowing a pasture with a push mower.

Then he had a whole bunch of nasty stuff to say about me and my daughters (apparently, my husband doesn’t exist), with his usual lies about us having never worked a day in our lives (and by “work” he means a job he thinks is a “real” job, apparently), and trying to put him in jail, while demanding to talk to my brother about me, face to face.

It was how he ended the message that was the most concerning.

It was with a threat.

But of what?

Whatever it is, apparently he has something planned for before he dies, or after he dies, that is so big, even “the Pope will read it in a magazine,” about what we’ve done to him.

So his cancer scare and brush with death certainly hasn’t changed him in any way. If anything, he seems even more obsessed with the property – he is an example of what it means to “covet” something – and me, and my family. He has convinced himself we are trying to destroy him, so he is planning something to harm us as some sort of revenge.

*sigh*

I was hoping we’d be able to start relaxing a bit, but nope.

So while the gate was open, I wanted to be outside to make sure our vandal didn’t just suddenly show up.

One of the things I did was finally unwrap the sheets of clear plastic roofing material. I set up the saw horses and cleared space on the work table to support their 8′ length. They needed to be cut to 4′ lengths.

I marked out the centre of the panels, but wasn’t sure of the best way to cut it. I left it be, though, and went inside to have breakfast before my brother and his wife were supposed to arrive.

I timed it just right, too.

After they got here and my SIL was loaded up with tomatoes and a cantaloupe, she headed back home, and I went to help my brother.

He had a surprise for me.

One of the last times he was he, he checked on my mother’s car. We were able to get the compressor hose through a hole in the wall on that side of the garage, across the middle, section, and just reach the flat front tire on her car. We couldn’t reach the back tire, though.

He got me an extension for the compressor hose. One of those coiled ones that can stretch to 50′!

We can now easily reach the back tire on my mother’s care (which is starting to look low again), and I can even top up all the tires on our truck, without having to turn it around to reach the other end.

He is so thoughtful!

Meanwhile, since he was there, I asked for his advice on how best to cut the roof panels in half. After asking and seeing what I had, he suggested the jig saw, but to put painter’s tape over where I’d be cutting first. The jig saw, I had considered, but I would not have thought of the tape.

The hose extension set up and done, I helped him tie down a new tarp on the box of his dump truck, to keep the elements out, and the old tarp was getting worn out. The winds get really high out here, so we really wanted to make sure it was solidly tied down.

He’s already unhooked the piece of equipment he’d hauled out here, so as soon as the tarp was secure, he was off again. He wanted to come back with another load on his trailer before it got dark.

As for me, I followed his advice and used the painter’s tape over the line I’d marked. I could still see the line through the tape, so I didn’t have to measure and mark it out again.

Using the jigsaw worked, but WOW did it vibrate like crazy! So much so that the jigsaw blade and the line I was trying to follow were like trying to see with double vision! I was able to get it done, though, and pretty straight, too.

The cut edges were rough, though, so after removing the tape, I sanded the edges.

Leaving the panels still on top of each other, I left one end on top of the isolation shelter for later, then took the other end out to the catio.

Before starting on the roof, though, I brought over some of the wire that was used to hold the welded wire mesh rolled up. The bottom half of the catio is new mesh, with about 9 or 10 inches of overlap between old and new wire mesh. My daughter felt that some of the smaller kittens, should they require isolation in there, could potentially squeeze between mesh and get out, so I wanted to use the wire to “sew” it closed across the top.

I had help.

Gouda is no longer being kept in the catio.

Once he got over the scare of not being able to get out, he seemed to really enjoy his time in there. The Cat Lady thought she might have someone that could adopt him, but hadn’t heard back from them yet, so there was no point in keeping him in there longer.

When I opened the door for him, he didn’t even try to leave right away. As I was going back and forth with things, I suddenly realized, he was back in the catio, watching me!

Him and several kittens.

The cats quite like the catio! Especially the kittens.

Interestingly, after letting him out, Gouda seems to be extra calm, and wanting human attention more. He reaches out to my hands to get me to pet him – but if my hands are busy and I don’t pet him, he reaches out with his teeth!

He was not the only helper.

This little kitten was all over the top of the catio! When I was bent over to lace the wire through the mesh, she kept batting at my hat.

Yes, this is a she, and she is friendly!

I had other cats rolling around on the top of the catio while I worked, but this one, I sent pictures of to the Cat Lady, mentioning that she’s friendly. She seems to be the only female kitten that is friendly. All the rest of the friendly ones are male, as far as I can tell.

The Cat Lady responded that we should get her fixed soon, while she still is young enough to qualify for the special pricing for spays at the vet clinic we took Gouda to. That would be awesome! So, maybe next month, we’ll be doing her instead of two males.

I did as much as I could with the wire wrapping, but had to stop for a while. I ended up going into town to refill three of our big water jugs. I should have done a dump run, too, but after driving over that glass jar last time, I really don’t want to risk my tires. People on the local RM Facebook group I’m on have been talking about how bad the conditions at the dump have become in the last little while.

So I decided against going today.

Since I was not going to be around to supervise, I had to make sure the gate was closed up.

The good thing is, my brother has his own key.

By the time I got back, my brother was hear and had already started to load. After unloading our truck and leaving a daughter to put things away, I went to help my brother unload his trailer. He didn’t stay long after that, as he needed to start loading the trailer again when he got home, before things got dark. Nothing that’s coming here, though, so we shouldn’t be seeing them again this weekend.

Once we were done and he left – and the gate was locked again – I went back to the catio. I finished off with the wire wrapping, then brought over the hose. It had taken Gouda a while to figure out the litter box, and he’d made a mess on the cat hammock. I got that cleaned off before finally starting on the roof.

That catio now has a roof again!

The screws all have washers with neoprene seals on them, so water shouldn’t leak around them.

Since no cat will be in there overnight, I removed the empty food bowl, but didn’t bother removing the water bowl. The box nest went back in, though, as did the litter box, just to keep it out of the elements until I empty it and clean it for the next time it’s needed.

After this, we can finish painting the rest of it black, and replace the torn cat hammock that was removed. It will then be officially done!

Then I can get back to working on the isolation shelter. I really need to get that finished. Not just for the cats, but so I can get everything out of the garage and cleaned up, so we can park the truck in there again.

For now, I’m just glad to have that roof on. We’re supposed to get thunderstorms at around 5am. This gives the cats a bit of extra shelter they can tuck into.

After two weeks or driving all over, I’m happy to have one week of almost no driving at all, before it’s back to running around. This coming week, I expect to do grocery shopping for my mother at some point, but that’s about it. That will give me time to work on projects, but also get caught up on things like lawn mowing, and getting the loppers out to clear away saplings that are starting to take over some areas again.

Maybe even finally get back to working on those raised garden beds we’re supposed to be harvesting trees for!

If the weather holds. We may not be expecting frost, but by phone’s weather app is predicting thunderstorms on at least three days next week.

We shall see how it goes!

I’m just happy with whatever progress I manage to get right now.

The Re-Farmer